How real-time online videos are reshaping ecommerce.
Sometimes, shopping trends come full circle. The TV shopping experiences many of us remember on QVC or Home Shopping Network may be old hat, but live shopping is back in a huge way. In fact, it could direct ecommerce in the coming years, and savvy direct selling companies are figuring out how to implement it into their marketing efforts.
Amazon, eBay, Shopify and Walmart are just a few enormous brands that have launched full live shopping platforms of their own. Amazon Live, for example, allows sellers to live-stream product demonstrations; interact with consumers and followers; and brand themselves as experts. There is even an official Amazon Creator app—an all-in-one tool for sellers to broadcast, chat and sell.
Customers get to see products in action while getting educated in authentic ways. It’s a more genuine experience than traditional advertising or “push marketing.” Instead, customers are part of a more valuable and entertaining experience while feeling part of a community. Today’s ecommerce customers want authenticity. They want to trust the people they buy from, and that is built through honest reviews and demonstrations. Customers want, at some level, a relationship. Many sellers and influencers go live from their own living rooms, creating a more intimate experience.
“We know that the vast majority of Gen Z consumers say that they now use social media as their first stop for shopping inspiration because they have built trust with these people online,” said Daniel Debow, VP of Product for Shopify in a CNBC report.
Nearly two-thirds of all consumers in China say they purchased products through live shopping in 2022, while 78 percent of U.S. consumers say they have never even watched a live shopping stream, according to the same report. But just because the U.S. dramatically trails China doesn’t mean the trend is not sharply on the rise.
Forbes shared that live worldwide ecommerce sales are projected to exceed $500 billion in the next five years, and live shopping is projected to account for up to 20 percent of all digital shopping in 2023. While the buying experience is easy and fast with just a few clicks on a phone or laptop, a Forbes article points out that convenience isn’t the core factor driving this trend.
“The key, perhaps surprisingly, isn’t necessarily the shopping,” the article explained. “Rather, it’s the entertainment, the fun, the interest and the engagement that an interesting and passionate influencer brings to a space. And if it happens to be one you care about, and the product happens to interest you, you might just click the buy button.”
Social platforms running dedicated live shopping features have sputtered in the last year. Facebook shut down its live shopping feature, which included product tabs and lists, in October 2022 to focus more on Reels. Instagram followed suit by killing the ability to tag products in live broadcasts mid-March. That doesn’t mean users can’t use video or other features to sell on the platforms. Posts, Stories, Reels and ads can still be utilized.
TikTok and YouTube, however, look to battle it out to become the social platform of choice for live shopping. GlobalData’s Social Media Analytics Platform researched influencers to determine the most-discussed social media app related to shopping. TikTok was number one with a 38 percent share, followed by YouTube (27 percent), Pinterest (22 percent), Instagram (7 percent) and Snapchat (6 percent).
TikTok says its users are almost twice as likely to have purchased products that they see on the app, and that 67 percent of users say TikTok inspires them to shop even if they didn’t mean to do so. Shopping features include a personalized shop tab, in-app order tracking, product pages with reviews and the ability for customers to enter coupons shared during live streams. YouTube’s approach is similar; they even partnered with Shopify in 2022 so users could click and buy without ever leaving YouTube.
Customers adapting to the live online shopping experience should be good news to direct sellers who are turning more and more to online platforms to promote their business and build customer relationships.
From the May 2023 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
